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Barcelona, Day Three: Lewis Hamilton sets searing pace, Red Bull decline to show hand

Mercedes show impressive turn of speed to highten expectations

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes gave a tantalising glimpse of what they might be capable of achieving together in 2013 on the penultimate day of winter testing with by far the fastest time seen at Barcelona so far this year.

As expected, however, the RB9 did feature several notable changes including a new front wing, which the team appeared to conduct aero assessments of during the morning. "We would have liked to get some more laps in for sure, but that is the way testing goes sometimes. Hopefully we have a better day tomorrow," Webber told Sky Sports F1 ahead of handing over the car to Sebastian Vettel. "We are going pretty well. It is hard to know what people are doing at this time of year, so we just need to get to Melbourne and stop talking." Elsewhere, Lotus were forced to draft in first third driver, and reigning GP2 Champion, Davide Valsecchi, and then recall Romain Grosjean from Paris, after scheduled Day Three runner Kimi Raikkonen phoned in sick with food poisioning. The changes meant the Enstone team didn't probably experience the Saturday then wanted, with Valsecchi's morning total of 16 laps only increased by 46 more when Grosjean arrived in time for the afternoon session. High mileage counts were a feature elsewhere on the grid though with Force India (109), McLaren (101), Toro Rosso (114), Caterham (126) and pacesetters Mercedes (117) all breaking a century of laps. Indeed, Force India with Sutil, Toro Rosso with Jean-Eric Vergne and Caterham with Gideo van der Garde all managed to complete full 66-lap Spanish GP race simulations during the afternoon as the weather stayed consistent throughout the day. Less than 24 hours after being confirmed in the seat for 2013, Jules Bianchi made his testing debut for Marussia and equitted himself impressively, the Frenchman completing 74 laps and finishing with a fastest time on soft tyres with was faster than Caterham's van der Garde managed on the quicker red-marked rubber. Day Three timesheet

1) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:20.558, 117 laps, Soft.
2) Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:21.266, 94, Supersoft.
3) Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:21.627, 109, Soft.
4) Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:22.305, 34, Soft.
5) Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:22.468, 31, Soft.
6) Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, 1:22.553, 99, Supersoft.
7) Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:22.658, 59, Soft
8) Sergio Perez, McLaren, 1:22.694, 101, Soft.
9) Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1:23.223, 114, Supersoft.
10) Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:23.380, 46, Soft.
11) Davide Valsecchi, Lotus, 1:23.448, 16, Soft.
12) Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1:24.028, 74, Soft.
13) Giedo van der Garde, Caterham, 1:24.235, 126, Supersoft.

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